BYU football: Legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden looking forward to making Provo debut

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Along with cracking jokes about messing up when he agreed to play BYU this Saturday in Provo, legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden admitted something on Tuesday, and it took his longtime friend -- former Cougars coaching legend LaVell Edwards -- to get it out of him.

Bowden acknowledged, in a roundabout sort of way, that he really wants have the most wins of any coach in major college football history when he finally retires. Currently, Bowden trails Penn State coach Joe Paterno by two wins, 385-383.

Told that Edwards suggested, jokingly, that he was still in the game because he wants to pass the 82-year-old Paterno, Bowden said there is probably some truth to that.

"You know, Joe and I have never mentioned that together [despite spending four or five days a year together at a Nike-sponsored convention]," Bowden said. "We have never mentioned it together. But uh, but uh, LaVell is probably right."

Although his FSU teams have played BYU twice before, Bowden, who turns 80 in November, will make his first appearance at the stadium in Provo named after Edwards when the No. 7-ranked Cougars play host to his Seminoles on Saturday (5 p.m. MT, Versus).

" I don't make the schedule, but I approve it. And so I approved it. It looks like I made the wrong choice, though, doesn't it?" Bowden said, later adding that this will be "the most physical BYU team I have seen of the years that we have played them. With the maturity of their football team this year, plus the physical [aspect], it might be the best BYU team I have seen, on film."

Monday, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall spoke about the respect he has for Bowden, whom he has met several times.

"I have been very impressed," Mendenhall said. "He has a lot of class and he is a great storyteller, from what I have seen."

Those storytelling skills were on display Tuesday, as Bowden recounted his friendship with Edwards and Edwards' wife, Patti, some highlights of his career and why he's still in coaching.

"Now that he is out [of coaching], I don't see him much any more. And I miss him," Bowden said. "I don't know of anybody that didn't like, or love, LaVell."

As for facing Mendenhall, one of the youngest head coaches in college football, the second-oldest coach said he has been impressed with what the BYU coach has accomplished so far.

" He will be sitting beside you, and you won't even realize who it is, because I didn't know a lot of these young coaches," Bowden said. "But I was impressed with him, with his modesty and with his mannerisms. ... I thought I saw a lot of class."

Florida State was college football's winningest program in the 1990s under Bowden, who has won two national championships and a National Coach of the Year honor in five different years.

But FSU has dropped off this past decade, a cause of frustration for the coach who is working on a year-to-year contract and has hinted this may be his last.

"If you have ever won a national championship, or go through what we went through, your people expect you to do it every year," he said. "And it don't work that way. Football goes in cycles. You might put together [several great years], but you are not going to put 20 and 25 years together.

"It is frustrating to me now ... people expect you to do that all the time, and it is very frustrating for me, course at my age, because it is so easy to say, 'Well, he's too old.'

"But I have still got the same drive -- that hasn't changed. The fire is still burning down inside."

BYU defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen, a big Florida State fan growing up in Helper, Utah, said his teammates are well aware a coaching legend is paying a visit on Saturday.

"You would have to have lived in a box and not know sports to not know about him," Jorgensen said. "Maybe to other people who didn't grow up as a fan, they know who he is and they know he is a legend. But maybe to them it is not that big of a deal. But to me, growing up and following Florida State and following Bobby Bowden, it is a big deal, a huge deal."

Added BYU safety Andrew Rich: "No question there is going to be an electric feeling, Saturday, having him come in and having two of the best coaches to ever coach the game be in the same stadium, and so, no question, it is exciting for us."

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